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The Top Three Baddest Downright Nasty Pepper Sprays

When you need pepper spray, we automatically think of a dangerous or even life-threatening situation. Whether it is “a simple” assault from someone you know like in a domestic abuse situation or a college sexual assault or an assault from a stranger on the street in a robbery, you want the most potent pepper spray you can get. When you are scared out of your wits and fear for your life, you reach for your self-defense pepper spray. You want the baddest, nastiest pepper spray available.

Here we are going to describe what makes pepper spray bad and nasty and discuss the top three baddest nastiest pepper sprays.

In our June 23rd, 2014 article ‘Pepper Spray-Everything You Need To Know’ we said “You almost need to have inside knowledge to get past the marketing hype of most manufacturers. The most effective way to judge the potency of the spray is the percentage of major capsaicinoids. This information is almost impossible to find on most pepper spray labels quite possibly because the percentage is so low. The low end of Capsaicin and Related Capsaicinoids (CRC) is.18%. On the high end is 2.4% CRC for some potent bear sprays.”

Chris E. McGoey, a.k.a. The Crime Doctor has over 44 years of education and experience and has absorbed thousands of hours of special training. He is highly-acclaimed as a security expert witness and security consultant with 30 years of experience in 400 depositions and 80 trials under his belt.He tells us that “Self-defense chemical sprays or tear gas, come is three general categories of active ingredients: CN, CS, and OC.” OC is the main ingredient in all pepper sprays. CN is not used much anymore but CS is a frequent addition to a pepper spray.

“It irritates the mucous membrane of the nose, throat, eyes and the skin in high concentrations.”

According to the online encyclopedia, CS Gas is used by law enforcement as a crowd and riot control agent.

In our opinion, there are several factors that comprise bad and nasty pepper sprays.

The first is the percentage of major capsaicinoids as described above.

Then the percentage of oleoresin capsicum with most pepper sprays clocking in at 10%.

Several manufacturers add in a teargas component which makes them especially bad and nasty.

Of all the disbursement methods, gel is absolutely the nastiest.

Finally the number of Scoville heat units with 2 million SHUs being the minimum. The higher this number the more potent and nasty the spray.

In this article, we are excluding specialty products like this JPX Pepper Gun which has a 2.4% MC and bear sprays like this Frontiersman Brand that has 2.0% MC.

Here is a dramatic YouTube Video example of how important pepper spray is for your self-defense.

The first on our list combines a couple of the criteria from above. It is the Sabre Pepper Gelas shown above that has 2 million SHU (Scoville Heat Units), a 10% concentration of oleoresin capsicum and 1.33% Major Capsaicinoids all in a flip top dispenser which has enough spray for 10 one second bursts up to as far as 15 feet away. The gel disbursement method, generally speaking, delivers a more forceful and longer shot while reducing, if not eliminating, cross-contamination that you get with a normal spray or mist. As an added bonus, when the gel hits the face of an assailant, the first reaction is to rub it away. All that does is grind the components into the skin making it doubly painful. Gel is nasty stuff!

Fox Labs 1.5 Ounce Stream

As far as we know, Fox Labs is the only manufacturer that produces defensive sprays with the highest level of Scoville heat units or SHUs. That is a standard measurement of hotness in any given product. This 1.5 Ounce Stream can shoot as many as 18 half-second bursts up to as far as 20 feet away. This is the same type of pepper spray used by police, security and military agencies worldwide. Fox Labs calls it the world’s hottest pepper spray because it has 5.3 million Scoville heat units in the spring loaded flip top unit. Fox Labs was the first manufacturer to declare that their pepper sprays were compatible with Tasers or ECDs.

Guard Dog 3-1

This Guard Dog Brand Three In One Tear Gas has the highest percentage of oleoresin capsicum of any spray on the market at 18%. This is the third of our nasty, bad pepper sprays because it combines a teargas component with the highest percentage level of OC. This canister with a built-in key ring contains as many as 9 one second bursts up to 12 feet away. It also has an invisible ultraviolet marking dye for assailant identification after the fact.

All pepper sprays do basically the same thing. They immobilize an assailant for as long as 45 minutes by causing intense tearing of the eyes so bad that the eyes may actually shut. The chemicals in the spray make breathing very difficult and cause a certain level of disorientation. But let’s face it, all pepper sprays are not equal-some are much better than others.

There are probably close to 900 or more different pepper sprays from dozens of different manufacturers on the market in the United States alone and more varieties overseas. Pepper sprays are the most widely used self-defense product in the world perhaps because of the cost-they are inexpensive-and because of the legality. Pepper sprays are legal in all U.S. states and most foreign countries whereas stun devices have severe legal limitations.

Again, we must stress, these choices are our professional opinion based on the information we have available to us, our years of experience in the business and anecdotal evidence passed on to us by law enforcement and our customers.

What is your experience with nasty pepper sprays? We want to hear from you.